Oral hygiene advice: Use of mobile phone applications in children and adolescents

There's huge potential for smartphones to be used in this kind of research

This review of the effectiveness of interventions delivered by mobile phones in improving adherence to oral hygiene advice for children and adolescents included just 2 small RCTs involving a total of 130 patients. The findings suggest that mobile phones are effective in improving adherence to oral hygiene advice in orthodontic patients.

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Mobile apps- can then improve dental health?

This RCT looked at whether Mentalization Based Treatment for Adolescents reduced self-harming beahviour

This review of the effectiveness of mobile applications and text messages on oral health included 15 RCTs providing very low quality evidence of reduction is plaque and gingival bleeding.

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Oral hygiene advice: insufficient evidence for best way of providing one to one advice

shutterstock_68251921 dental education young girl and nurses

This Cochrane review of the effects of one-to-one oral hygiene advice, provided by a member of the dental team in a dental setting included 19 RCTs providing insufficient evidence to recommend any specific 1:1 method.

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Oral health literacy, oral health behaviours and outcomes

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This review of the association of oral health literacy with oral health behaviours and dental treatment related outcomes included 25 studies the majority being cross-sectional in nature. The available evidence is limited and further high quality studies are needed.

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Motivational Interviewing for adolescent oral health

iStock_000013941806XSmall teenagers queuing

This large well-conducted 3-arm cluster RCT compared motivational interviewing(MI) with prevailing health education. Both MI arms of the study were more effective in eliciting positive changes in adolescents’ oral health behaviours and preventing dental caries after 12 months.

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Toothbrushing: Are three heads better than one?

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This review of the effectiveness of 3-headed toothbrushes included 15 studies describing 18 comparisons. The quality of the available evidence was low an no differences were seen with self-performed brushing but a benefit was suggested for plaque removal for care-dependent individuals.

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Computer games for oral health education in young children

Behavioural and cognitive-behavioural group-based parenting interventions are effective at improving child conduct problems, parental mental health and parenting skills in the short term, in the parents of children aged 3-12.

This small RCT of a computer game to deliver oral health education in high caries risk children and families was highly satisfactory to users. Improvements in knowledge were demonstrated is the short term > however there was a high drop out rate an further studies are needed to assess change sin other groups and longer term benefits.

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Psychosocial correlates of oral hygiene behaviour in children and adolescents

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This review included 31 data sets from 24 papers and indicates that ‘self-efficacy’, ‘intention’, ‘social influences’, ‘coping planning’ and ‘action planning’ are potential psychosocial determinants of oral health behaviour.

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Psychological interventions to improve oral health

This meta-analysis claims to be the first evaluating mindfulness-based interventions in primary care.

This review of psychological interventions to improve oral health identified 9 RCTs reported in 11 papers. A small statistically significant improvement in plaque index was noted but the quality of the available evidence is low. More higher quality studies are needed.

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Sense of Coherence and oral health behaviours

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Nine studies were identified for this review of the impact of sense of coherence (SOC) on oral health behaviours. The findings suggest that more favourable oral health behaviour are seen in those with a stronger SOC.

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